Calls to scrap benchmarking payments

SECOND-ROUND benchmarking payments to public sector workers must be scrapped, small business lobby group ISME said yesterday.

Launching its pre-Budget submission to Finance Minister Brian Cowen, the group said public sector pay levels should be set using transparent systems that linked pay to performance. This would avoid a repeat of the first round of benchmarking, which ISME said cost taxpayers an extra €1.2 billion a year without improving public services.

ISME said the increased costs had been shouldered by small and medium businesses through higher commercial rates and other local authority charges. Repeating the exercise through Benchmarking II would have “serious implications for the wider economy,” the group said.